Author: Xintong Xie

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Recitation 4: Drawing Machines——Xintong Xie

  • Step 1: Build the circuit

H-bridge circuit diagram

The circuits are really confusing!!! thanks to various colors of the wires, I finally made it! I used the 5v first, instead of the power, which helps to protect my computer and arduino.

  • Step 2: Control rotation with a potentiometer

After adding a potentiometer, I used the the function “map()” to match the movement of the knob with the rotation of the motor. The code is “float val=0; val=map( val, 1023, 0, 200,0);”. After coding, the motor rotated according to the movement of the knob!

  • Step 3: Build a Drawing Machine!

My friend Hangkai built the machine together. We used 5 paper fasteners, 2 laser-cut arms,  1 laser-cut motor holder, and one 3D printed motor coupling. When we used our machine to draw, the drawing looked like some doodles drawn by kindergarten children. But it was happy and worthy!

  • Question 1:

I would be interested in building a machine to help me find my things. Because I always fail to find my things and can’t remember where I had put them. So I want to build a robot which can help me to find and get my things accuratly. I can use some chips to stick on my easy-losing things like phones or bottles. (The chips can as light as paper). Then the robot can connect to those chips and locate to those things according to the chips, and report their locations. If I don’t want to get them by myself, it can help me to get! They will have wheels, motors, and distance sensors. Also, because I sleep upper, so this machine can also help me to get things from my desk or ground to my bed.

  • Question 2:

I was impressed by the work “The Drumming and Drawing Subhuman”. I think this project is creative. Considered it was built in 2000( quite early),  it is fantasy to see the movements of the robort were trying to mimic the actions of human, to play drum, to throw stone or to try to stand up. Compared with the drawing machine, I think both of them tried to imitate human actions,but the drumming robort is more human-like and have more actions( more complicated). I think the artisit used motors to control the robort’s legs and arms so that they can move up and down freely, also, it can change the strength and frequency that hit on the drums in order to change the tone.

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Individual Reflection by Xintong Xie

Interaction has many definitions and has lost its true meaning. But in my opinion, interaction is how machines reach the goals of people while communicating with each other. It breaks down into three processes, listens, thinks, and speaks. For any interactive project, listen is input, think is process and speak is output. A low level of interaction is just taking action according to the orders. But for a higher level of interaction, its works contain more profound thoughts to the human being as it has known what a human is or looks.

This project, the Quad stick, is a high level of interaction, in my opinion. It is designed to help Quadriplegics. The Quadriplegics can’t move most of their muscles, so ordinary game sticks are impossible for them. However, the Quad stick is designed to solve the problem. They used it to play games and enjoy leisure as ordinary people by their mouths. The Quad stick not only contains the three processes I mentioned above but also includes the detection of the movements of Quadriplegics. It lets the machine rethink about a disabled human and to fulfill their requirements.

As you can see in the video, the Quadriplegic just moved his mouth or bite on the stick, the player in the game can take action quickly like playing with a joystick. It is such a functional interaction between the computer and the Quadriplegics.

As I mentioned above, there is a various definition of interaction, but the “high-tech art show celebrates Japan’s flowers” is different from my interpretation. In this project, the creator used a touchable screen to demonstrate Japanese flowers. They designed lots of screens not only on walls but also on floors or ceilings. The visitors can touch the screen so that the bulb will blossom. However, I don’t think it is interaction. The visitor did not interact with the flowers, and the screen didn’t show the processes of “ listen,” “think,” and “speak,” the blossoming process is well-designed animation which can play without anyone around.

Lastly, for our project——Magic Mirror——our group hopes to show not only the communication and interaction between humans and machinery but also the consideration of the environmental crisis.

The magic mirror is a device to help people solve clothes choosing and recycling problems. The mirror is put in the public area of communities, accompanied by fitting rooms. When the member stands in front of the mirror, the magic mirror will wake up and say hello to you. You can ask her about the weather and air pollution, which will lead to the need for a hat, sunglasses, masks and so on. According to your schedule, the mirror will choose clothes for you. The appearance of yourself in the outfits will reflect in the mirror so you can decide whether or not to wear it. You can also change the color or style if you don’t like it. The whole process is just conversations and reflection between the mirror and the users. It embodies a vital point——interaction。

Another thing is after you decide the clothes that you want to wear, you can enter the fitting room and get changed. The clothes are either made from recyclable materials or reused after the professional cleaning process. This process helped to solve the clothes wasting and recycling problems. Members don’t need to buy clothes anymore, and users can recycle clothes.

For our group, the communication between the mirror and users is the process of thinking. The mirror understands its mission by chatting with users. Then, the process of choosing clothes or changing their style and color shows its thinking ability. Lastly, getting the clothes done in the fitting room is the process of speaking.

The Quad stick project gives me the idea that our invention should be designed to help change the world or solve the problems. So, the magic mirror is not just a project to help people choose clothes but a project to address the world clothes recycling issues. And the Japanese flower renders me the idea that our project shouldn’t just touching or clicking, but contains more elements like chatting and reflecting.

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Recitation 3 Sensors by Xintong Xie

 

  • Question 1

We intedned to assemble a infrared distance sensor in the recitation. We connected the sensor with a LED light, when distance is lower than 20cm, the light will turn on. I think museums will use my sensor combination. They can use the sensor to portect the relic from touching. When people get too close to the relics, the light will tutn to warn visitors.

  • Question 2

I think programming has a lot in common with recipes. Both are done in sequence, with each component having a specific function. At the same time, preparing the ingredients and understanding the necessary terms are similar. However, there is no need to have a waiting time in programming, basically fast processing; Recipes often involve waiting for the food to cook.

  • Question 3

Computers have influence the way people look for information.  In the past, people usually used books or libraries to look for information. But now, people tend to usethe search engine online and get information from different websites. Also,  computers influence the way we take notes or write documents. People like to write with Word or Excel and storage them in the computers.

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Recitation 2: Arduino Basics By Xintong Xie

  • Circuit 1: Fade

  • Circuit 2: toneMelody

  • Circuit 3: Speed Game

 

  • Question 1:

The first and second circuit are very normal in our daily life. It’s the basic of most of the circuits. When you open the door of the refrigerator, the light will go off. When you step into Family Mart, the bell will ring. They all use breezer and light, so actually, those circuits are quite common in the life and you can find them everywhere.

“To make the computer a medium for expression, you need to describe the conversation you want to have with (or better yet, through) the computer.” As the text said, we need to describe ourselves to the computer in order to interact with it. We need to express our emotion, small details of every action and so on.

  • Question 2:

Because the button is like a switch, its resistance is really small and if we press the button, it will form a closed loop without resistance, it will probably damage the circuit. So, for the sake of protecting the circuit, we use the 10k resistor.

  • Question 3:

I will use them as decorations for couples. I will find a dark open area(or at night) and use the LEDs to spell letters she/he want to say to the other one. And when one of them say the words like” I love you”, the lights will go off one by one( really fast) . Also, they can DIY what they want to say and make the decorations together.

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Recitation 1: Electronics&Soldering —— Xintong Xie

During the first recitation, we learnt how to solder and built 3 seperated circuits. We ran into some troubles at first, but then we solved them perfectly.

Materials:

  • 1 * Breadboard( a base for circuit to connect)
  • 1 * LM7805 Voltage Regulator( to regulate the voltage in order to protect the transducer)
  • 1 * Buzzer(speaker)
  • 1 * Push-Button Switch(connect or disconnect the circuit)
  • 1 * Arcade Button(same as switch)
  • 1 * 220 ohm Resistor( resistance for protecting the circuit)
  • 1 * 10K ohm Resistor( resistance for protecting the circuit)
  • 1 * 10K ohm Variable Resistor (Potentiometer)(changable resistance for protecting the circuit)
  • 1 * LED(light)
  • 1 * 100 nF (0.1uF) Capacitor(store electricity and work with regulator)
  • 1 * 12 volt power supply(power, provide electricity)
  • 1 * Barrel Jack(contain components)
  • 1 * Multimeter(measure the resistance and voltage)
  • Several Jumper Cables (Hook-up Wires)(connect components)

Soldering

We connected wires with the metal part of the button. After heating the gun,  our instructor Rudi showed us how to connected those two parts with a metal, which is very easy to melt. At first, my partner failed to connect because she put the metal into the wrong place. But after we found out, we successfully connected them.

Circuit 1: Doorbell

doorbell

We can’t understand the circuit at first, we were confused about the numbers on the lines and couldn’t figure out which wire to connect. With the help of the instructors, we finally understood that the capacitor is parallel with theregulator. With several tryouts, we finally made it. When we heard the beep, we are so happy that we screamed out 🙂

Circuit 2: Lamp

lamp

With the expierence of the bell, we made the lamp quickly, and also, we understood the working theory of the bread board, so we used less wires to connect. This one is quite easy~

Circuit 3: Dimmable Lamp

dimmable light

With the basics of the lamp above, we just needed to add a Variable Resistor, and then we could use the variable resistor to adjust the luminance of the lamp. I think my study lamp in the dorm is also based on this theory.

Question 1:

I think it includes interactivity. The interactivity is based on 3 steps: input, processing, output. Use the lamp for instance, when I press the button, it’s the sign of input. The output is the lamp brighted. The processing is that by those components like wires and regulators, the action finally make the lamp bright. So does the bell.

Question 2:

The Eyewriter in Zach Lieberman’s video impressed me the most. This design built a bridge between disabled and the art, with the Physical computing and interaction with human and the technology. This shows that in ordet to build an interctive art,  one needs interactive design to serve his purpose, and uses Physical Computing to build a bridge between the art and daily life.